{"nrhp_refnum":"84000297","name":"Yondorf Block and Hall","other_names":["Sam's Cut-Rate Liquors"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"758 W. North Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.911173150000025,"lon":-87.64815011999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-11-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick commercial and meeting-hall building at the northeast corner of North Avenue and Halsted Street in Chicago, built in 1887 for August and Charles Yondorf and designed by Frederick Ahlschlager.","why_significant":"It was built as a rental hall building for the clubs, societies and fraternal groups of the surrounding northern European neighborhood, and unusually gave every floor above the ground level to hall use. Its street facades blend Victorian Gothic polychromy with Romanesque Revival massing and masonry detail. It is described as a largely intact example of late 19th-century hall construction and the last representative of the ethnic community that built it.","narrative":"Yondorf Hall and its attached commercial block rise four stories at the corner of North Avenue and Halsted Street on Chicago's Near North Side. Clothing merchants August and Charles Yondorf had it built in 1887 to a design by architect Frederick Ahlschlager. Shops occupied the ground floor, while the upper floors held at least six halls of various sizes, including a two-story auditorium used for lectures, plays and dances. Lodges, benefit societies and trade unions serving the German, Hungarian, Swedish and Swiss neighborhood met there. The south and west fronts combine red pressed brick, Bedford limestone, terra cotta and a sheet metal cornice, joining Victorian Gothic color with Romanesque solidity. A corner tower and several chimneys and gables have since been cut down or removed, but the building is otherwise little altered. Once one of many commercial buildings along North Avenue, it is now the only one that recalls the immigrant community that built it. A liquor store still occupies the lower levels.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Frederick Ahlschlager (1858-1905)","architectural_style":"Late Victorian Gothic modified by Romanesque Revival influence","criteria":[],"status_note":"Ground floor and basement house a liquor store; the upper-floor hall is unused but largely intact; the building is described as fair to deteriorated and neglected.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:34.603222-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/95/8924/28892495/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/84000297.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000297/ce6bf36612-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000297/ce6bf36612-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yondorf_Block_%26_Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yondorf_Block_%26_Hall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892495","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yondorf_Block_and_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q62268839"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/yondorf-block-and-hall-84000297/"}